Chapter 150: The Bear Enters the Mines — Part One
Chapter 150:
The Bear Enters the Mines
Part One
TODAY, ON BEARQUEST…
To rescue the hostage Princess Fina from the terrible witch Ellelaura, the great Hero, Yuna, has arrived at the mines, but…
Hark! A golem blocks heroic Yuna’s way! The golem extends its arm and launches a never-ending barrage of pebbles at her. Our hero dodges, but…can she avoid them all? Alas, nope.
Fwunk fwunk, fwunk fwunk.
The rocks pebble her cheeks, but they do not hurt. They feel soft. Such lame attacks cannot defeat mighty Yuna!
The hero runs at the golem. To keep her at bay, the golem pelts her with a deluge of rocks.
Fwunk fwunk, fwunk fwunk.
Pah! ’Tis nothing. The Hero Yuna laughs at such weak attacks.
Fwunk fwunk, fwunk fwunk.
As Yuna ignores the assailing rocks, she raises her mighty sword for a stab…and does not feel the sword connect! Thwarted, heroic Yuna tries to use magic, but instead, she abruptly feels as though she is being suffocated.
Was this, too, an attack?!
Something…presses…against…her face…
Oxygen…fading…
Heroic Yuna is defenseless against this mysterious assault. Would she die without even knowing what killed her?
And so our hero falls into the abyss of unconsciousness…
“Ahh! Can’t breathe.”
Thud.
I got up and something slipped off my face.
“Kumakyu?”
Kumakyu looked quizzically at me, lying right in front of my eyes. Kumayuru sat curled up on top of my belly. I didn’t leave myself defenseless, after all, even while asleep—I’d summoned my bears in cub form as a preventative measure.
“I’m gonna blame that dream on you guys, you know.” Those soft fwunks must’ve been their paws, and I’d been suffocating because Kumakyu had been smothering me in my sleep. “What was up with that?”
Kumayuru and Kumakyu gave a little “Kwoom” in reply and looked toward the window.
The sun was streaming in. Apparently, they’d just tried to wake me up, since it was morning. I guess I had asked them to wake me up before we went to bed, but...
“I love you guys, but can you not smother me to wake me up next time?”
I’d been this close to suffocating to death. If I’d been just a little too late waking up, I would’ve ended up in the obituaries. “Onesie Girl Found Dead.” Ack, what a thought.
Still, Kumayuru and Kumakyu had kept me from sleeping in. I had to be grateful. It wouldn’t be right to bear a grudge against them.
I thanked Kumayuru and Kumakyu, then sent them back. I also changed from my white bear outfit to my black one and headed to the dining room for breakfast.
While I was eating alone, Mel and Senia came by. I didn’t see Jaden or Toya.
“Good morning, Yuna,” said Mel. Senia gave me a casual wave.
“Mel, Senia. Good morning.”
“Are you going to the mines soon?” he asked.
“I was thinking of going to check it out at least.” I mean, I had to get through this quest quick so I could save Princess Fina.
“In that case, you want to head in with us?”
“You mean your party? Today?”
“We know you can hold your own,” said Mel, “but you really don’t look like it.”
Senia nodded. “I really can’t see you as any more than a cute bear.”
And they began patting my head. Really? Really?
“You don’t look like you’re all that strong. We’re worried,” said Mel.
“That’s why Mel and I spoke about it yesterday,” said Senia.
I got that they were concerned about me, but it was easier to do things on my own. Then again, I still kind of wanted to see their abilities in action.
Hmm. What did I want more?
I guess the answer to that was for them to stop patting me on the head...and right when I thought that, they stopped, sat down next to me, and ordered breakfast.
“But shouldn’t you ask Jaden whether he’s okay with that?” I asked.
“We don’t need to ask him,” Mel declared.
Wait up, wasn’t Jaden the leader? They couldn’t just do stuff like that without at least consulting him. While the bloc of women in the group discussed that with each other, Jaden and the other guy came down from the second floor.
“You’re all early.”
“You’re all just slow. Oh, and Yuna is coming with us to go investigate the mines.”
Hey, wait a minute, I still hadn’t said anything yet. When did that get decided?!
“Yeah, all right.”
“Fine by me too.”
They were agreeing just like that? No discussion or anything? Well, nobody heard my internal pleas. In the end, I was swept up by the momentum and ended up going along.
When we arrived at the mines, we found tons of entrances into the tunnels. I had no idea how many decades or centuries it had taken to dig them. Some were ancient, but others were new.
The golems had appeared in the newest tunnel, though the miners had been digging that one for years now. There were two entrances to the new tunnel and they met partway in. You could get to the deepest room where the golem had appeared by taking either.
The bozo rangers always used the same entrance, so Jaden’s party used the other one to avoid trouble. It kept the other party from complaining that Jaden and the others had stolen their mark or something. Seemed like the right way to deal with those doofuses to me. Better to avoid them than beat them up.
A gamer learns to recognize a true bozo after a while. Bozos are self-centered, don’t listen to others, are narcissistic, twist words to their own benefit, act rashly, and blame others for their own mistakes. I’d come across tons of them while playing my game, and it was better just to avoid them.
The entrances were a slight way off from the town, and it was pitch-black inside. Just when I was thinking we’d need light magic, Jaden put his hand on the wall near the entrance and the inside of the tunnel lit up.
Light mana gems, just like the Bear Tunnel. Mana lines connected light mana gems so that the tunnels could be lit up at what was basically the press of a switch. Then again, any average house in this world was outfitted with this stuff.
This tunnel was wide enough for a carriage to pass through with some room to spare. It seemed to continue pretty far in, but I couldn’t tell how far from the entrance.
I used my bear map skill. It showed part of the tunnel’s entrance: the map would be useful, but it only ever showed places I’d already been. I often thought of it as a kind of automapping tool.
Next, I used my bear detection skill. There were some golem signals up ahead. Since the map was incomplete, all I knew was that they were ahead on the dark part of the map—”the fog of war” we’d call it in the game. Right now, I couldn’t tell if the signals meant they were in the same tunnel, one of the neighboring tunnels, or even down below us.
Jaden led the group into the tunnel. Mel and I followed, and Senia and Toya trailed us.
“It starts out with mud golems—then the rock golems start appearing further in.”
“Mud and rock golems are a piece of cake to deal with, but the downside is that their mana gems aren’t worth all that much.”
Mud golems? Maybe this would be a good time to break out my bears to fight them. And speak of the devil…
A mud golem appeared the moment I thought that, right where I’d seen one of the golem signals show up earlier. It was about two and a half meters tall with thick arms and legs. Yeah, one whack from these guys would ruin your day at least, especially if you were just some miner trying to just do your job.
Jaden gave out orders to his party members and broke into a run.
It looked like they had a routine going. Mel lopped off the golem’s arms using wind magic, although that wasn’t enough to stop the mud golem in its tracks. Next up was Jaden, cutting off the golem’s feet with his sword. Once its legs were cut off, the golem slouched forward and collapsed. Senia leaped onto its back while it was immobilized and stabbed it with a knife, then tore out its mana gem from the hole she’d made.
The mud golem crumbled on the spot. The whole thing had been a fluid operation.
Toya hadn’t been standing idle either. While the others were fighting, he’d been acting as the lookout.
Without its gem, the golem had crumbled back into plain dirt. Apparently, the mana gem had been powering it, meaning we could do massive damage by hitting that weak point. Made sense to me.